ANY PORT IN A STORM; or, KNOWLEDGE OF HELL, part 2

seen from the north, the main street bridge looks like it might have been designed after the barqueta, but it was the broad street bridge that, like the single arch suspension bridge in seville, was built to commemorate the quincentennial of the first voyage of christopher columbus. it's also on that broad street "discovery" bridge (in this second tier city in the north american middle west) that you'll find the bronze placards commemorating columbus' discovery of a new world for castile and león. but those placards aren't nearly as confounding as the spires that the city has recently erected on the four plinths of the bridge to celebrate the bicentennial of the municipality. in the design race of their founding year, the barqueta is the easy winner. at any rate, however, the single suspension arch design of the barqueta is more similar to the design of the main street bridge, although the arch of the latter is at a slant. from the north, you might not detect the slant of the arch, and the bridge could look almost like a replica of the barqueta. but from either approach -- taking the bridge head on as it were -- you notice the street lamps, which rise form the southern edge of the bridge at a slant parallel to the arch...a total image that is surprisingly untacky by the prior design and planning standards of the city.

it seems like i've crossed it already dozens of times -- and always in the direction of fabulous franklinton, in the direction of the fabulous franklinton sign on the house behind the barbed wire fence on town street as it enters franklinton -- and so i don't take much note of the admirable design when i cross it the morning of the storm. a parking meter on town street (before the fabulous franklinton sign), and a series of very pleasant phone calls that will begin the escalation of the dizzy game of catatonic psychological terror. everyone's playing emergency escape from the psychiatric ward, and the cute guy at the cvs pharmacy can turn the screen and give you your entire history with the company, recall for you all of your forgotten adventures with the ambien walrus.

at the bus stop, the man selling newports announces that they're fifty cents each or, the deal, that he'll give you two for a dollar. he's wearing a fashion rosary. on trend. and i think of the bracelets made popular by iker's girlfriend. in the qualifying round of olympic men's soccer, spain has been beaten by japan. and i wake up to hear the news just before the rain picks up, the lightning sounds, and the grid goes dark.